thank you to all of you for your input - i appreciate it. it's a small issue - the nalgene vs gsi - but i like to gather as much info as possible before i make a purchase of anything - and i've found so much great info on so many different topics here.

it sounds like nalgene will be the bottle to buy. i saw the gsi bottles and thought perhaps i'd give the 'little guy' my business.

all other things being equal, the base of the nalgene is the same size as the rest of the bottle. the base of the gsi appears to be slightly smaller than the rest of the bottle - in my mind making it not quite as stable as the nalgene. a picky point, but i'd like to give my water bottle as much chance as possible to remain standing.

perhaps i'll get one of each.

thanks again to you all.